So first of all, I feel like it's worth clarrifying what exactly all the worlds and represented franchises in this fic are. All but one of the worlds were already picked out when I was in middle school/early high school, so they're reflective of what I was into back then. Which meant a lot of video games. And anime. Honestly, TDI was like the only non-anime cartoon I was really into back than, haha. So, sorry if anyone was hoping for things like Steven Universe. That didn't exist yet. There's exactly one cartoon based world coming up, but the way it's going to be presented might be a bit weird.

So yeah, if you were wondering why things like Di Gi Charat and the CLAMP mascot are here, just understand that I have been an obnoxious weeb for a very very long time.;; When I said I was ready to finally publish this knowing just how absurd it was, I meant it.

What transpired back at Smash Stadium was a miracle of sorts. Since their first shared battle, Alakazam made it pretty clear what his opinion of Cody was, and he was sure to share that opinion of his at every chance he got. The constant deluge of judgemental comments built up tremendously within the relatively short time they'd had with one another, until it all boiled down to what laid out between them now. Any place and moment where the two shared even a few feet of space between another felt like being forcibly shoved into a train cart knowing that a rugged cliff was on the other side of the tracks. It was a source of dread that was almost inevitable.

When Loudred saw that Alakazam was, to everyone's shock, completely on the same page as the naive nerd, he thought they were making some kind of progress, that the two may have an actual chance of seeing eye-to-eye. That they might finally get along.

That this oppressive tension in the Gummi Ship would finally go away and leave him to pilot in peace.

"Okay," Al cleared his throat. "We have gotten severely sidetracked two whole worlds in a row. Next world, we are getting serious, got it? No extra missions, no tournaments, just serious searching. Capiche?"

"Such a killjoy," Mokona giggled.

Over at the bridge, Loudred could already feel his back straighten in worried anticipation. Mokona technically wasn't part of the problem, but that little guy sure did know how to unintentionally activate it. Or at least he hoped it was unintentional.

"Killjoy?" Al grumped. "Am I really the only one here taking this interdimension saving journey seriously?

"You!" He pointed towards Loudred at the other side of the ship. "Are you fooling around too?"

Alakazam typically knew the older Pokemon as a constant source of lackadaisical temperament. He was the kind of guy who helped mediate dire situations and helped everyone relax.

If only he could sense just how stressed out he was at that moment.

Don't bring me into this, don't bring me into this, don't bring me into this…

"Oh, come on," Cody began. "Lighten up, would you? You had fun in the last world too."

Loudred remained steady and in place as he continued to pilot diligently, but boy did he want to plant his face into his palms. With Cody's proper entrance into the conversation, they officially reached the cliff at the end of the road.

"Lighten up?" If Alakazam's tone wasn't already stern, it was now rock cold. "Listen, that was a one time thing. If you haven't noticed, both of our derailments so far have been because of you."

"And again," Cody leaned forward, an uncharacteristic glare in his gaze. "You had fun too."

Mokona looked up at the two who had stopped exchanging remarks to simply stare each other down. He wasn't foolish enough to assume this moment of silence would last. No.

He knew the "fun" had only just begun.

And just like that, a violent verbal spat erupted right in front of him.

"Literally, what is your problem?!" Cody pointed accusingly. "You have been on my case since the moment we met."

"Well maybe you should've given me a better first impression then, huh?!"

"Shut up! And what were you even doing back at the stadium? You were mocking me in the middle of battle. In the middle of freaking battle!"

"So what? You're the kind of person that needs to be talked down to just to know how to act."

Well if that didn't trigger something in the socially awkward geek.

Please let this end, Loudred mentally gulped as he continued staring forward and away from the spat in a forced composure. At this point, even Mokona was getting scared.

"You've been prancing around like a kid in a candy store. Do you even understand the gravity of this mission?!"

"No, because I'm not from your fucking kingdom!"

"And those friends you said you were looking for, I haven't heard you say a peep about them since we left Traverse Town. Like heck you're actually looking for them. You're just using this as an excuse for a road trip!"

That does it.

Mokona's mouth quivered wide open. What started off as a shouting match escalated into a physical struggle. The two pushed each other, kicked each other, dragged each other down. This was the worst it'd ever gotten.

"Loudred, help!" Mokona squealed.

Loudred gulped, not just in his mind this time. This entire time, he prayed that if he just hurried along to the next possible destination, things would settle down enough that it would never reach this level of vitriol. Clearly, he could no longer ignore it. Slowly and timidly, like a struggling screw getting unwound for the first time in years, he turned around to assess the situation…

…And witnessed the two hurtling right towards him.

Now, the four were left tumbling violently in the ship as they crash landed into the next world…

oOo

Ashley bit her lips. She and Heather were engaged in combat; a simple training activity to help acclimate her new fellow witch to magic. She was, of course, supposed to act as something of a teacher in this activity. But as she felt the crushing menace of Maleficent's silent fury off the corner of her ears, it was no wonder her mind wandered elsewhere. She carelessly flicked away spell after spell towards the screechy amateur witch as she backed away towards the wall and eavesdropped away on her master's current meeting.

"What a disappointment," she heard Maleficent say with the smooth cadence of dripping venom. "And to think I had high hopes for him. All that promise, and for what?"

"Don't you worry," an almost comically gruff voice responded. She'd never really spoken to him much, but she knew that this was that Robotnik fellow. Personally, she always felt out of all of Maleficent's conspirators, he was the one with all bark and no bite. "It appears that those riffrats have landed themselves in my territory. Tabuu failed to utilize the full potential of the Heartless. I on the other hand have integrated them into my work and pushed them to their fullest potential. This time, we'll be able to crush that hedge— er, Keybearer."

"I trust you'll hold on to that promise," the hauntingly pale witch responded in a tone that felt like a threat of force itself. "Failures have absolutely no room here."

And yet Ashley was still here.

Ashley could feel both her master and colleague's presence make their exit. She pursed her lips. She knew if she didn't play her cards more carefully in the future, those words Maleficent used against someone as intimidating as Tabuu would soon be directed towards her.

"Hey, would it kill you to quit hitting so hard?!"

Ashley's attention snapped right back to her task at hand. Heather stood furiously as she scowled against her new would-be rival. Her skin was bruised and her clothes were all beaten and tattered from the flurry of spells Ashley thoughtlessly ping ponged all across the room.

Ashley scowled back as she flicked yet another orb of magic towards her. The bratty nuisance's pained frustration would be the one thing that could calm her down for the time being.

oOo

GREEN HILL ZONE

oOo

"HEY, WAKE UP!"

SMACK!

A rabbit foot jabbed into Cody's guts like the stab of a blade, prompting him to snap right out of his unconscious state. He could feel a tinge of annoyance as he achingly prompted himself onto his feet. He'd just recovered from his sores and injuries from Smash Stadium only to gain them anew thanks to their botched landing.

…Wait, where were they?

He twisted and turned and examined his surroundings. Emerald green pastures stretched out far and wide, and a serene river of waterfalls drummed in the distance. At first glance, one could easily mistake this for a normal plain or meadow. Until one got a better look at the mountainous paths that boasted peculiarly checkered patterns on their mounds of dirt. It was almost as if the entire area was a meticulously built track with how perfectly squared off the tracts of land were. Heck, he could even see paths that spiraled off into unnatural corkscrew trails and a towering loop.

"Hey guys," he started. "Where are we this…"

His words trailed off. This entire time, he assumed the full crew was here, but it turned out to just be him and Mokona.

"Where are the others?"

"Probably bounced off to a different part of the world after we crashed."

His first instinct of course was to panic and try to piece out where the other two may have landed. But then something much more devious popped in his head.

Alakazam wasn't here.

But Mokona was. The multi purpose creature was not only their portable luggage case and makeshift camera….

…But he was also their de facto universal translator.

Cody flashed an evil grin.

"Finally some peace and quiet." He stretched out his arms. He thought back to the spat that transpired between him and Alakazam earlier and a sense of prideful mirth stretched on his face knowing that this dumb luck of his could count as a "win".

But then his mind trailed back to his words.

"And those friends you said you were looking for, I haven't heard you say a peep about them since we left Traverse Town. Like heck you're actually looking for them. You're just using this as an excuse for a road trip!"

He frowned. There was a part of him that knew his frenemy had a point. But of course he wasn't willing to admit it, even in his own mind. He rationalized to himself that his next course of action was of his own volition and started off. "Alright, I'll start looking for Gwen and Trent then."

"Shouldn't we be looking for Ally and Loudred?"

"Ehh, those two are fine on their own. We'll find them when we find them."

"...Okay!"

A decent person would have started to chastise Cody's pettiness, but Mokona wasn't decent. He was Mokona. The two happily trotted along side-by-side without a care in the world.

"...Hey what's that?" Cody peered his eyes. Off in the distance, a small group of figures steadily approached. Normally, he'd assume they were Heartless and brace himself accordingly, but while their movements were irregular and unnatural like a Heartless's would be, there was a different tone to these things. Their rugged steps were rigid, almost mechanical.

Mokona cracked his eyes open and dilated his pupils into a nightmarish size. For a few seconds, he observed the group just as intently as Cody was before he shut off his mental binoculars and turned to address his companion.

"We should run," he replied casually.

"Huh?" Cody blinked. "What? Why? What are those?"

He took another glimpse, and lo and behold, the figures submerged into the ground just like a common Shadow would and began to crawl towards them at a rapid pace.

"Oh crap."

The two were just about to make their escape when the approaching new enemies effortlessly caught up and surrounded them. As they resurfaced, Cody gritted his teeth in both fear and confusion. Rather than the sentient masses of dark energy that teetered in between the lines of organic life and pale copies of one like he was used to, he was instead greeted by cold, dark machines. Their toy-like designs almost clashed against the classic Heartless markings that covered them. It was as if someone had forced the darkness into their shells and haphazardly spraypainted the emblems to resemble the real deal.

He summoned his Keyblade. It wasn't what he was used to, but that didn't change the fact that they needed to be taken down.

Cody and Mokona diligently clashed against the robotic copycats to the very best of their abilities. They were of course in much better stance and shape than when their journey first started, but it was clear the loss of half their fighting force was putting them in an awful disadvantage. And of course, it didn't help that Mokona himself was only ever meant to be a support fighter rather than a full fledged combatant.

Cody was in the middle of fending off a small subgroup of the machines that had taken it upon themselves to target him specifically. Overwhelmed, his eyes glanced over towards Mokona in worry. The tiny rabbit creature did his best kicking the heads of the bots and shooting them when he could, but his size proved to be a major snag. Even more robots approached him, and he could barely keep up with their numbers. Cody tried to break free of his own cluster. Mokona needed assistance or he'd be in serious trouble.

…!

It happened so suddenly.

A gust of wind swirled through and an azure streak shot through the air. A large sphere of spikes charged like a deadly bullet and knocked down robot after robot as it bounced off the strange amalgams like a pinball hitting flaps. By the time Cody's brain could connect two and two together with what was transpiring, all the robots that were just inches away from crushing him before had all but perished. He quickly jumped up and assisted this mysterious force with taking down the last of the robot-Heartless hybrids, and soon, it was all over.

Mokona looked over the battlefield in awe. The two of them struggled so much, but in the blink of an eye, the battle was won.

A soft gloved hand playfully nuzzled the top of Mokona's head.

"You alright, little buddy?"

Mokona and Cody looked over to the new voice. He was a bright blue anthropomorphic animal with a playful yet noble grin. And they had no doubt in their minds that this guy just saved them.

"Holy crap, that was so cool," Cody ran up to their new unknown ally. "You took down like half a dozen of them in seconds. How'd you do it that fast?"

"Being fast is kind of my thing," the blue blur chuckled. He held out his hand. "Name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

"I'm Cody," he took Sonic's hand graciously with the same kind of geeky fervor one would have to meeting a real life superhero..

"I'm Mokona," he happily bounced up and down, earning a soft laugh from the hedgehog.

"So," he turned back towards Cody. "Are you guys lost or something? You're both pretty far into this zone. And to be honest, you seem kind of lost."

Cody's mouth twitched. It was pretty obvious, huh?

"Yeah, uh," he scratched the back of his head. "We may have just crashed into here."

"Like, BOOM, BAM!" Mokona flailed around for dramatics.

"We're looking for some people. You happen to see a goth girl named Gwen or a dude named Trent?"

"And Loudred and Al-"

"Yeah, Gwen, Trent, and Loudred!"

If Alakazam were here, perhaps Cody wouldn't have been as reckless with hinting at the true nature of their sudden entrance into this world. Neither Cody nor Mokona seemed to have realized the slip-up, and neither of them seemed to have noticed the slight arch of an eyebrow Sonic gave in response. But luckily for them, Sonic was the kind of guy who was more than willing to let a peculiarity like that slip. All he saw was a pair that needed his help.

"Well, I haven't personally seen any new faces around here besides you two," Sonic shrugged apologetically. "But my buddy Tails told me he picked up a pair of weirdos a little while ago. Maybe they're any one of those four?"

Sonic could sense the pair's excitement and flashed them a kind smirk. He turned around, crouched, and gestured the two over. "C-mon, hop on."

Cody stared incredulously. He would've assumed he was offering Mokona a piggy-back ride, but it was clear this offer extended to him too. He wasn't dangerously worn out from the battle to need a helping hand, and more importantly, even with his height, he was still much taller in stature when compared to the hedgehog. How would this even work out?

He opened his mouth, ready to voice his concerns and protests. But another hard kick from Mokona, this time like a whip crack to his back, forced him to tumble forwards anyway. As caught off guard as he was by his friend's rude action, he was even more bewildered by what happened next.

Sonic sprinted and…

…He wasn't sure what was happening.

The world was a string of whirling colors, and the wind splayed on to his face like the eye of a rushing tidal wave. The only sound he could hear was the muffled hum of the air and the ring of Mokona's gleeful cries twisting in the void as if he were miles away rather than right beside him. It was like his very soul had been sucked into a corporeal tunnel. It was nothing short of a miracle that he managed gasps of breath as the wind forced its way into his very being.

Sonic screeched to a halt.

It couldn't have been more than a minute or two, but the evergreen image of the green hill fields was swapped out completely for the fresh sight of a bustling seaside town; Emerald Town.

Mokona excitedly bounced immediately like they'd reached the destination of an arduous car ride.

Cody barfed.

Sonic scrunched his face and tried to ignore his acquaintance's sad moment in an awkward attempt to preserve his dignity. With a slick snap of his fingers, he pointed expectantly at the building before them. Large and wide with the sheen of amber, it reminded Cody of the almost fun house-like demeanor of the Wigglytuff guild headquarters, only now resembling a young fox.

"And here's our destination!"

Still coiled from his nauseated state, Cody weakly trudged over towards the door while his hand wriggled around in concentratedly random motions.

His ears perked up. A small commotion could be heard inside. What started out as mild rounds of frantic chatter quickly erupted into uproarious shouts. The natural reaction would be curiosity at what could be transpiring inside, but that was secondary to Cody's main concern.

That was Alakazam and Loudred.

Mokona jabbed him for the third time that day, this time at the back of his head. He felt himself planting himself face first on to the cold metallic floor, just right after painfully forcing the door right open, while Mokona happily yodeled himself inside.

He weakly peered upwards. Copious amounts of tools and bizarre knick-knacks lined up on every corner of the quaint garage. Any space that would've been free and open was instead occupied by enormously intricate computers and hardware. It was clear the shack before him was akin to a lab or workshop, but it was a wonder how anyone could find the right mind to work in that stuffy closed space.

Sonic tiptoed through and stood alongside a pair, a yellow twin tailed fox and a pink hedgehog wearing a ruby red dress. The three whispered amongst themselves, the two new figures having just held surprised faces at the scene in front of them. Mokona and Loudred bounced around in their joyous reunion, making the cramped space feel even more constricted.

Then there was Alakazam whose face drooped as he noticed just who exactly laid flat on the ground in front of him. Just the glares the two exchanged between themselves were enough to ruin the mood of the moment as Mokona and Loudred quickly simmered down to reluctantly greet the awkward atmosphere they had unfortunately grown accustomed to.

To think Cody was almost glad to see him again.

Ever the observant, Sonic quickly scrambled to get a lively conversation going. "So, I met these two when I was over at Green Hill. Said they were looking for some of their friends. I had a bit of a hunch and brought them here."

The two other anthropomorphic fellows shifted their eyes towards the duo that was shooting deadly sparks at one another. It definitely seemed like they knew each other at the very least. But "friends"…?

Cody lifted himself upwards and confidently walked over to his two new acquaintances, as if he was attempting an air of superiority over his seemingly unwilling ally. He flashed a bright smile. "Hey! Name's Cody. I guess you already know Alakazam and Loudred? That little guy's Mokona."

"Hi."

The fox smiled lightly. It appeared some sense of levity was able to be restored. "I'm Tails."

"And I'm Amy," the pink hedgehog followed. "You two came at the right time too. These two were really starting to get at it."

"Yeah, we found them in the middle of town just repeating their names over and over again. Nothing we said seemed to be connecting with them either."

"And Grumpy Pants here was getting fed up and nearly blasted this place earlier," Amy chidingly smacked Alakazam's back who could only react with an embarrassed face.

"I can understand them fine though?" Sonic blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, that's what I don't understand," Tails responded. "It's like a switch flipped on the moment you three got here."

"Oh, oh, oh, that's me!" Mokona waved his hand excitedly. "I'm a walking translator!"

Alakazam's eyes grew wide. Unbeknownst to him, this wasn't the first time their cover had been blown in this new world, but he of course was not the kind of guy to take chances. He abruptly smacked his hand on the small creature's mouth before desperately throwing out words. "Right, right, right, so everything's a-ok now. Thanks for finding us. Everything's hunky-dory, we gotta go."

Mokona yelped. Alakazam snatched the poor guy up and was ready to make a beeline out of there. Unfortunately for him, Cody's reflexes had improved enough that he too was able to hook his hands around Mokona before the two were even close to the door.

"So, Sonic, those two other friends I was talking about; would you mind helping me look around for them around town?"

"Oh no you don't," Alakazam growled, gripping his hold on Mokona even tighter. "There's something more important we've got to do."

"Oh come on, weren't you berating me for not being serious about finding them just earlier?!"

A tug-of-war competition erupted between the two, and poor Mokona could do nothing but make soft screeches as he was stretched back and forth between the two. Sonic had a fairly decent tolerance for nonsense, but now he could only look over awkwardly towards Loudred who carried a pained and exasperated expression like he was witnessing his own children embarrassing him in public.

Yeah, this was ridiculous. Time to step in.

"Hey, look, you two need to—"

"You two need to cool off!"

Under everyone's eye, Amy slipped between the two and stealthily elbowed the two bickering brats; just enough to force their grasp off Mokona. She graciously caught him in her arms, and he was quick to dub her his hero in a continuous chant.

It appeared even that wasn't enough to satiate their feud. Cody and Alakazam were more than ready to launch themselves into another fight. And this time Sonic was the one to blow out the fuse proper.

"Hey, look," he nudged towards the psychic Pokemon. "I don't know what kind of thing you two have going on, but this guy…" He pointed towards Cody. "I kind of made a deal to help him out. So how about this? You can go ahead and do what you came here to do while I go and help him out here in town. It'll give you two time to cool off." He gave a lighthearted wink. "Trust me, we'll be done before you know it."

"It's true. He runs around like VROOOOSH!" Mokona wriggled around in Amy's arms.

"What?!" Amy gasped. "But Sonic, you promised you'd go out on a date with me."

He was taken aback. "I what?"

"Don't tell me you forgot!"

"I, uh, sorry, Amy. They need my help. We'll hang out some other time, alright?"

"That's no excuse," she pouted irritably. "Don't they need this little guy to understand anything anyway? How can that work if you split them up?" She gently lifted the rabbit thing up for emphasis.

Alakazam practically gagged when he realized just how futile his attempt to hide their situation was.

"Oh, don't worry. I know how to make you all temporarily understand each other without me."

Cody blinked. "Wait, why didn't you tell us sooner?"

There was no real response. Right before everyone's eyes, Mokona's face started to morph into a disturbing state. His eyes reddened into blood velvet as they pulsated and bulged into indescribable shapes. His teeth caved in like raging sabres as they clawed into his mouth that had grown to the size of his own body. The ruby shard on his head pulsated like a heartbeat until a massive gasp of scarlet engulfed the room.

…

…

…

They weren't sure what exactly happened, but they all knew none of them ever wanted to witness that again.

"Hey, uh," Tails tiptoed over to the white rabbit-thing who had reverted back to his natural state just as quickly as he changed. "While you're all out doing your thing, mind if I take a look at your friend here? Just wanna research him for a bit."

"Sooooonic," Amy whined. "Can't we go on our date first? You've been pushing it back for almost a whole month now."

"I'm sorry, Amy. A lot of people rely on me, you know?"

"Do you even want to go on our date?"

A strong gust of wind blew out towards the door, and Sonic was gone.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Amy was now fuming as she grumpily stomped over to the nearest chair to sulk. Tails had already begun to calmly tinker away with Mokona, no doubt much too accustomed to similar occurrences at this point. That left the last three outsiders to make their move.

Like clockwork, Cody and Alakazam were once again back to their usual borderline immature glares and sneers, and Loudred was once again left to awkwardly feign soft laughter. The duo marched, ironically, in sync with one another as they headed towards the exit. The two jammed right into the doorframe, and they continued to jab and cuss each other out until they finally squeezed their way through and out of sight.

Loudred could only wave apologetically to the equally mentally exhausted Tails and Amy before he too made his leave.

Sonic is surprisingly hard to write.